Sponsored Content In the previous sections of this series, we covered the benefits of doing keto and what you'll need before you start. Now, onto the execution. After reading this, you'll know exactly what you need to do on your first week of keto at home. HOW TO AVOID THE â€œKETO FLUâ€ In the past, one of the largest complaints people had when going keto was developing flu-like symptoms shortly after beginning the diet. A variety of factors can play into the development of these uneasy...

Phil Heath focuses on the crucial upper half of side lateral reps for his medial deltoids. Sometimes halfway is the best way. Most bodybuilding training advice prescribes full ranges of motion, and generally this is the best strategy. However, if done correctly, limiting your range of motion (ROM) can focus more tension on the targeted body part. Weâ€™re not speaking here about partial reps done after reaching failure with full reps, though those too can be very effective. Our focus this m...

QUESTION Should aerobic exercise come before or after weight training?Â Â ANSWERÂ If youâ€™re reasonably fit, I suggest 15 to 20 minutes of aerobics first, followed by 10 minutes of midsection exercise, then finish up, unpressured and focused, with your weight routine. Less-fit people prefer to warm up only for five minutes before weight training in order to conserve energy, doing the remainder of their cardio upon completion. Some reserve their cardio for the end of their workout, ...

Photos by Per Bernal â€œI WASNâ€™T ALLOWED TO LIFT WEIGHTS. SO Iâ€™D WAIT UNTIL MY PARENTS WENT TO SLEEP, AND THEN Iâ€™D GO OUT IN THE BACKYARD AND DO PUSHUPS AND LIFT CHAIRS.â€ Such were the humble bodybuilding beginnings of Maxx Charles. Emigrating from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to Long Island, NY, with his family when he was 12, Charles was always fascinated with muscle. From lifting whatever he could find around the house, he eventually made his way to a local gym, lyin...

Make the move and become a vegetarian monster in the gym without sacrificing muscle or missing meat. There was a time not soÂ long ago when any man dedicated to moving big iron and sculpting dense muscle would have been called a grasschewing wimp or even (gasp!) a hippie, for turning down a fat, juicy rib-eye steak and instead tucking into a plate of beans and rice with a side salad. But starting in the â€™50s, as modern bodybuilding began to take shape, a few dedicated muscleheads brush...

Photos by Charles Lowthian Y3T (Yoda 3 Training) is the brand name of my training method, which incorporates a three-week structure based on utilizing low, medium, and high reps with varying training volumes and rep tempos to target all muscle-fiber types. Other people put the â€œYodaâ€ tag there. The ideology of Y3T has grown from more than 2 1/2 decades of testing methods with a wide selection of athletes, including four-time Olympia 212 Showdown winner Flex Lewis and IFBB pro Willia...

Photos by Charles Lowthian Is one major muscle group any more important than another up on the bodybuilding stage? Technically, no. But the beach and swimming pool arenâ€™t a bodybuilding stage, and a few body parts in particular might just warrant a bit higher priority in the next couple of monthsâ€"and one of those happens to be chest. Not that weâ€™re telling you to ditch leg, back, and delt training, but before the hot months get here, make sure youâ€™re blasting the afo...

Sponsored Content Be prepared to "bring it" for every workout. As a lifting enthusiast, you know how important it is to be mentally and physically ready before picking up that first weight, which is why it's essential to take a pre-workout supplement that will provide the increased energy, focus, and endurance you need to perform like a beast! APS Nutrition's Mesomorph is the ultimate pre-workout complex, offering superior-quality ingredients to help you unleash your true genetic potential for o

What couldâ€™ve been? When bodybuilding careers begin with much hype but end soon thereafter, questions haunt us. Chris Cook and Desmond Miller won the NPC Nationals two years apart yet never stood on the same stage. Though both were heralded as possible Olympia contenders, each was a pro for only two years, and neither flexed on the O stage. When Cook won the NPC Nationals in 2004, the 28-year-old Californian had abundant legs and delts. His chest was shallow, and he wasnâ€™t HD, but ...

Photos by Per Bernal His quads are so colossal heâ€™s run out of space to put new muscle. Meat hangs from the sides like spare wheels on his wheels. When thatâ€™s coupled with his small knee joints and undersize calves (not to mention his cartoonishly gargantuan upper half), the effect is so astonishing that his first appearance onstage at the 2015 Olympia generated head-shaking murmurs of laughter. Like a visit to Jurassic World, the unreal is suddenly apparently real. When shape, ba...

Washington, D.C.â€"area favorite Five Guys burst across the fast-food scene since they started offering franchises in 2003, with well over a thousand locations now open across America, and even Canada and the U.K. The burger joint offers a simple menu with fresh ingredients free of artificial flavors or hidden chemicals. The 80/20 USDA ground beef is hand-formed per order. The easiest way to keep your calories, carbs, and fat in check is to nix the french fries. An order of fries adds a who...

Â HYPOTHESISÂ Time under tension (TUT) is theÂ total amount of time the muscleÂ spends contracting againstÂ resistance. The principle of TUTÂ does not differentiate amongÂ concentric contractions, isometricÂ contractions, or eccentricÂ contractions. During a traditionalÂ set, some time will be spent in allÂ three conditions. How much timeÂ depends on the specific repetitionÂ cadence that is used. Â RESEARCHÂ Researchers from Brazil andÂ the U.S. performed a stud...

Shredding a face-melting soloâ€"talk about heavy metal! Is there anything this Mr. Olympia canâ€™t do? Â QUESTIONÂ Do people recognize you everywhere you goâ€"or can you sometimes maintain a low profile? Â ANSWERÂ Thereâ€™s always at least one guy at the airport who points me out or someone in the hotel lobby or someone in the restaurant or someone on the street. I was in Mexico before Christmas for a much-needed vacation, and even when Iâ€™m out by the pool, t...

I first started training when I was 17 and HEAVY was all I knew. I had the mentality that if I could move heavy weight and continue to get stronger, I could get bigger as well! As most beginners know, pretty much no matter what you do, you will grow when you first start pumping iron. But, there will come a point when things need to change and you need to keep your body guessing, as it will adapt to whatever you are doing after a period of time. It may be six months or a year, but the same thing

Knowing the ins and outs of protein powders can help you take your gains to a whole new level. Hereâ€™s everything you need to know about how to make that happen. We've long recommended that you consume the majority of your daily protein intake from lean whole-food sources, such as beef, poultry, seafood, pork, eggs and dairy. But there are certain times of the day when protein powder provides clear benefits over whole food. Not that long ago, few options were available as far as types of p...

Anyone who has been training for more than a year knows that at some point muscle gains will start to slow, and in some cases, stop. Itâ€™s not necessarily that youâ€™re doing anything wrong, itâ€™s just that your body is adapting to training; in other words, itâ€™s getting used to it. This is when you need to change things up to keep your body guessing. My preferred method is to increase workout intensity. I utilize six intensity multipliers to help break plateaus and spur ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger definitely proved he's more than just the name behind the show at the 2016 Arnold Classic Brasil. When the tans of Juan Morel and Lionel Beyeke needed a little touching up, it was Arnold himself who stepped up to the task, showing he is still hands-on guy right down to the last detail.Â Arnold @schwarzenegger is definitely a hands-on kind of guy! #2016arnoldclassicbrasil @officialkaigreene @juandieselmorel @lionelbeyeke A video posted by Flex Magazine (@flex_magazin...

Bodybuilding requires full development of each muscle group. For lower legs, that means equal development of the gastrocnemius, or calf. The gastrocnemius has two heads, the medial (inner) head and the lateral (outer) head. For many, the real challenge is the outer head. Research done at Armstrong Atlantic State University has shown that turning your toes inward when doing standing calf raises shifts the emphasis to the outer head. Yes, it sounds a little confusing, but itâ€™s the way to go...

Sponsored Content Unless youâ€™ve been living under a rock (or spent the entire morning in the gym trying to LOOK like the Rock), you probably know that Quest released a new Protein Spray Tan product last night. And itâ€™s already backordered. Demand for the new trans-dermal protein product is so high that the Quest Nutrition website crashed within minutes of release. An hour later, they had sold every last bottle of the self-applied aerosol tanning product. Quest CMO Nick Robinson apo...

Â OPENING ARGUMENTSÂ Bodybuilders customarily train with â€œsplitâ€ routines. Split refers to dividing body parts into muscle groups to be trained on separate days. This is in contrast with full-body routines, which, as the name implies, dictate that all muscle groups be trained together during the same workout. Â DEFENSEÂ Split routines produce good gains in size and are used by nearly all competitive bodybuilders. They allow for adequate volume to be used as well as adequate...

Schwarzenegger, Columbu, Zane, Grant. Not all are household names, yet all are synonymous with the term â€œchampion bodybuilder,â€ and all are from the iconic Pumping Iron and Goldâ€™s Gym days of the â€™70s. Each is an epic story in and of themselves, yet the focus here is on the legendary Mr. World and Mr. America, Bill Grant. Grant was a scrawny kid who started working out in his early teens to put some meat on his bones. He made some significant gains and started competin...

When bodybuilders think of training back, they usually focus on width or how far their lats stick out from their sides. However, this is only one aspect of a well-developed back. The thickness of the upper back is equally important. The primary muscles of the upper back are the middle traps and upper lats. The primary exercise that targets the middle traps is the bentover lateral raise. The primary exercise that targets the upper lats is the seated wide-grip row. Â FORM AND FUNCTIONÂ The or...

Â OPENING ARGUMENTSÂ DEFENSE Daily undulating periodization has been shown to produce superior strength gains compared with periodization in which the weight loads progress linearly from light to medium to heavy over the course of several weeks or months. PROSECUTION Most periodization models have a fixed schedule of progression that lifters are not allowed to deviate from regardless of their â€œreadinessâ€ on the workout day. Flexible periodization allows the load to be selected o...

Â JACKSONâ€™S CHEST TRAINING RULESÂ Free-weight movements like bench presses and incline presses with both barbells and dumbbells should form the core of your workouts to build a solid foundation of size. Attack your chest from multiple angles, using the fat, incline, and decline benches to work all areas of your chest. Keep your chest high and shoulders back to maintain stress on the pecs. â€œA lot of bodybuilders claim to be the strongest. But how many of them have a belt at home...

GOAL SETTING Set realistic goals. From the beginning and throughout your training, experience victory in every workout and be careful not to fall victim to mental and physical burnout. Planning to look like Rambo in a few short months will be frustrating and may cause you to give up your training entirely. COMMITMENT Commitment is the big power switch of our mental mechanism to see if we have the juice to crank the engine and keep it running. Commitment is your personal promise to realize your c

Sponsored Content Last month we covered the wide range of fascinating benefits one can expect to see while on a ketogenic diet. The same dietary regimen that can fight all sorts of diseases and metabolic ailments can increase satiety while keeping you so unbelievably cut that people will be offering you band-aids all day. These enticing benefits could have you chomping at the bit to start right here and now, but before taking one bite be sure you're fully prepared if you hope to reap peak result

Photographs by Gary Phillips Years can go by without it happening. But every now and then a previously unheralded bodybuilder rockets to pro victories with a physique capable of cracking the Mr. Olympia top 10. As the world grows smaller, we need to search farther to spot the next big thing. In 2014, it was Ghana-born Dutchman William Bonac who won two pro shows. And in a single week in November 2015, it was 5'8", 260-pound Australian Josh Lenartowicz who did the same. He defeated Bonac (fresh

Photographs by Per Bernal If youâ€™re like the average gym rat, thereâ€™s probably one day of the week that you donâ€™t really look forward to: leg day. You see people waiting for chest and arms machines, but rarely will you see a line for the squat rack. But Juan Morel is not youâ€™re average gym rat. He's one of the top IFBB pro bodybuilders in the world. Oh, yeah, and he loves leg day. BRING THE PAIN Morelâ€™s unbridled passion for leg training stemmed from what was ...

If you think youâ€™re too old to start training, much less step onto a bodybuilding stage, donâ€™t tell it to Robert Drapkin, M.D. â€œI didnâ€™t start working out until I was 50,â€ says the competitive bodybuilder, who decided to pick up weightlifting after a vacation photo of his body shook him to the core. â€œI didnâ€™t like what I saw and knew something needed to change.â€ Two years later, with the help of a personal trainer, Drapkin began prepping for hi...

Legendary bodybuilder Kai Greene dazzled audiences at the 2016 Arnold Classic with his impressive posing routine. Since the video of his on-stage performance hit the web on March 5th, social media has been ablaze with conversation and excitement about Greeneâ€™s explosive return.Â FIND OUT HOW MANY VIEWS KAI'S ROUTINE HAS ON SOCIAL MEDIA >> The performance marks a major comeback for Greene, who had made an emotional announcement last September that he would not be competing in the...

Photographs by Per Bernal For taller guys, filling out your arms can be tough but not impossible. Just ask 6'1" Dallas McCarver, who has exploded onto the IFBB pro scene with a win at his first pro show and a top 15 finish in his debut at the 2015 Mr. Olympia. Hereâ€™s how guys like McCarver can blow up triceps and biceps for maximum mass. Height isnâ€™t necessarily advantageous for bodybuilders. Added vertical inches means more muscle mass is required to fill out the frame. Arms can ...

Whether youâ€™re training for a local bodybuilding show or are just looking to improve your physique for personal reasons, this fact remains: The devil is in the details. Phil Heath and I both believe that the little things, such as subtle tweaks to foot placement, modified ranges of motion, and slight changes in his training split, are just as important as his main working sets on big compound moves. Make sure youâ€™re sticking to the tried-and-true basics (squats, presses, heavy rows...

Â OPENING ARGUMENTSÂ Lifting straps are used for exercises that place a heavy demand on grip strength, such as rows, chins, shrugs, and deadlifts. Bodybuilders use straps to prevent their grip from giving out. Â DEFENSEÂ Grip strength is critical in both powerlifting and strongman competitions. Lifting straps reduce the grip-strengthening effect of certain exercises. Â PROSECUTIONÂ Bodybuilding contests do not involve lifting onstage, so using straps in the gym does not impact you...

Photographs by Per Bernal JOHNNIE JACKSON HAS THEÂ GREATEST TRAPEZIUS DEVELOPMENT OF ALL TIME. Yes, superior to the shoulder mountains of Ronnie Coleman or Markus Ruhl. Better, too, than the twin peaks atop the clavicles of Lou Ferrigno, Kevin Levrone, that other Jacksonâ€" Dexterâ€"and anyone else you name. At his best, when crunching a most muscular, Jacksonâ€™s traps rise so high they seem at risk of detaching. And from behind, the granite kite on his back jumps at you in 3-...

Just as a chain saw is more efficient than an ax, some exercises performed with cables and cams have clear advantages over their barbell or dumbbell equivalents. Before you grab your pitchfork and cry, â€œHeresy!â€ rest assured that weâ€™re not denigrating free weights. However, you need to understand how some machines fight gravity to stress your muscles through a fuller range of motion than â€™bells ever could. What follows are seven examples of machine exercises that have ...

Â QUESTIONÂ As an NPC contest promoter, what makes a competitor stand out in your eyes? Â ANSWERÂ The enthusiasm has to match the physique. There are a lot of amazing physiques, so Iâ€™m hoping for the person who looks great and has a lot of fun, like me. Sometimes, the guy Iâ€™m rooting for doesnâ€™t even placeâ€"but Iâ€™m going to be watching for him in the future because Iâ€™m going to remember that he brought something more, and heâ€™s going to be...

Like Franco Columbu four decades before him, Jose Raymond is celebrated for his super heavyweight density packed on a middleweight frame. Though standing only 5'4", they both reached lofty heights. Columbu won the Olympia lightweight division three times (1974â€"76) and the Olympia twice (1976, 1981). Raymond has eight 202 or 212 pro titles, including the 2015 Arnold Classic. Columbu possessed a torso that could hang with the 6'2" Arnold Schwarzenegger; his clavicles seemed as broad as he w...

Bodybuilding is both a sport and an art, but that only begins to explain the tension. First, itâ€™s the most subjective of all athletic contests. Which physique is ideal? Do you favor more mass or better proportions? Monster quads or a greater flow to the whole? And as art, styles clash, as if a lifelike sculpture by Michelangelo is next to an abstract painting by Picasso. Is bodybuilding foremost about the pursuit of harmonious refinements or the avant-garde urge to shock? On one side is ...

SCIENTIFIC NUTRITION FOR ADVANCED CONDITIONING. Achieving optimal levels of size, strength and athletic performance requires the perfect mix of clean eating, intense training, and adequate rest. Furthermore, adding the right supplements into your fitness plan can help accelerate your muscle-building and body-shredding results. Incorporating scientifically proven formulations, like those found in the SNAC supplements below, will provide a large number of highly bioavailable nutrients with a wid

Iâ€™ve always found it funny that while bodybuilders and vegetarians traditionally want the same thingsâ€"better health and a fitter bodyâ€"they havenâ€™t always gotten along. Bodybuilders see vegetarians as being weak, thinking their refusal of meat makes them â€œgirly men,â€ while vegetarians look at us as â€œmeatheadsâ€ who prize our muscles over the good of the environment. Iâ€™ve certainly been guilty of knocking our crunchy-granola friends in the ...

Let's get one thing absolutely straight -- IFBB pros Phil Heath and Kai Greene are not on friendly terms.Â The two have been butting heads over the Mr. Olympia title for the past six years! In case you (somehow) missed it, seeÂ the documentary Generation Iron.Â With that fact in mind, let's look over Phil Heath's latest anti-Kai assault -- he thinks the 2016 Arnold Classic champion is lying about his age. "...honestly Kai is much older than me as he never admits publicly his real age," He...

Yea, we know we sound like a broken record telling you for the billionth time that â€œabs are made in the kitchen,â€ but itâ€™s true. Whether youâ€™re looking to shed fat or gain muscle, the diet and supplement routine you follow has got to complement your training regimen or youâ€™re never going to hit your goals. This is true when it comes to fueling your workout, and even more so after you train. SEE ALSO: Pre and Post Workout Nutrition for Bodybuilders >> No ma...

Eddie Hall broke his own deadlift world record last weekend's Arnold Classic, doing it in front of Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. Setting the mark in front of The Oak meant a lot to England's Strongest man, he posted a video on Instagram. So I just made a new world record on a long bar deadlift 465kg infront of Arnold Schwarzenegger @schwarzenegger It was really tough, it went really fast to the knees and then the bar whip just took me forward which made it really tough, if it had been a stan

@officialkaigreene's official #ArnoldClassic mid-contest snack? Apples and rice cakes. #themoreyouknow #ArnoldClassic #asf2016 A photo posted by Flex Magazine (@flex_magazine) on Mar 5, 2016 at 5:53pm PST Oh, you know, just @schwarzenegger and @thorbjornsson being best friends. #asf2016 #ArnoldClassic A video posted by Flex Magazine (@flex_magazine) on Mar 5, 2016 at 5:50pm PST @muscle_and_fitness: The #pumproom at the #Arnoldclassic is seeing a lot of action! See full coverage